Well, no baby yet. Although Amy's having massive contractions right now. So maybe we are almost there. Soon. Very soon.

Beyond that, not much to report. I know it's been a long time since my last update, but life's been full of contractions, meetings and new hires at work, and outside play with Carter. Lots of playing with Carter.

Work is very busy for the summer. Lots of planning meetings (excitment, blah, blah, blah), new hires, and trying to tie up loose ends before Anderson comes.

Hope all is well with you guys. My obsessions are doing better, but more on that later.

That's right, he prayed for a piece of toast. Now you might be thinking, maybe there's an image of Jesus or Noah on it (really, how come none of those Christian images on food are ever Old Testament people...ever think about that). Or maybe we starve our kid. But no he's just concerned for the well being and eternal life of toast.

My obsessive mindset has actually produced a few productive days at work. Not sure how, but it's a step in the right direction. Lots of motivation, just very little desire to move on it.

Carter is getting ready for Anderson by acting out. Lots of biting. Very interesting to observe that he knows something is coming.

Sometimes your worst fears are given voice to. This happens at times, and then you realize that there is absolutely nothing to change that feeling. I guess this is part of being an adult, is accepting that reality and finding a way to live within it. Just like AA, "accept the things I cannot change."

See all that work at the native american drug/alochol treatment center paid off...

So when that balance of obsessions slip and stress builds up you need to make choices. Set priorities. But making decisions is hard when you want to be everything to everybody. Obsession in leisure is fun, obsession in work can be rewarding, obsession in life can be fulfilling. But as much as I may want it, I can't have all 3. Dealing with the obsessive mind once it realizes that it can't balance all 3, that is the danger.

It's a spiral. Want more, realize there is no time for more, get anger at time, get even less done, and then want more again. That is what the state of my mind has been over the last few days. Falling down that dangerous spiral of an obsessive mind.

Hope your weekend been more fun than my self abusive, and family intrusive one.

I just found out that I am now in charge of the instruction program at work. It's my program to make it what I want. I've been the lead for the last year, but now I've got the vote of confidence to run with the program. I do a lot of teaching, but the structure, goals and mission are no where. I feel like it's a real blank slate. With this I feel like I've found a new obsession. I've got a lot to and people with more experience underneath me.

Speaking of obsessions, I'd be curious to know what ones' you would list for me:

It's been a couple of days off work is busy plus I've been wallowing in my own pity party for a day or so. I've realized a few years ago, okay realized it long before I actually admitted it, that I have an obsessive personality. This should come as no shock to any of you. But the difficultly with an obsessive personality is maintaing it. Hell, stablity is out the window. Balance is hard for those with a one track mind. Consistancy is the challenge. When you throw everything you can into one thing the trick is maintaining that intensity.This personality worked great for campaign work. 14 hour days - no problem. It was all intensity and consuming. That type of pace and work flow doesn't translate the best for library work. Finding motivation to force yourself to dive into something is the challenge. Artifical motivation only lasts so long.Parenting is great for this distructive personality type. It's easy to throw everything you have at your kids. The tough part is admitting that you need to throw something at the rest of your life, spouse, work, health. That's probably something all new parents work on. And now as we get ready to be parents again, remembering this balancing act weighs on my mind. All the scales get shifted again. Well, now you see the pity party I was starting to throw. Feeling like I should throw more to my job, but not finding the desire to. Looking forward to throwing everything at my family, but trying to cope with the balance issues.Don't get me wrong, I love my obsessive personality. Really how else could I have the desire to sit on the floor playing video games, eating junk food, not sleeping until the game was beat. Obsession may not be healthy, but it's sure damn fun.

Happy Father's Day to my dad! The lessons I've learned from you, the fun we had, and the quiet moments we share shaped me into who I am today. And I am thankful for that. I've learned a lot from you and your dad and I hope to always keep those lessons in mind with my own sons. Thank you and I love you Dad.

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there. My life as a father has been pretty remarkable. I love my sons and I cannot wait to see Anderson. My time with Carter is a true joy. He's turning into a kid and not just a little guy. But the times like picture here are the quiet moments that top everything. There's nothing quite like snuggling up and sleeping with your son who looks up to you and love's you. Happy Father's Day.

I do not think Carter could have asked for a better morning, we went to all of his favorite places.- Wal-Mart - bought Anderson a crib mattress. Carter got a Batman coin from the greeter. He carried it all around and never tried to eat it. This opening weekend of Batman reminds me of my Batman craze for the first Burton movie. I had the soundtrack (which turned me on to Prince - okay so "turn on" is not the word to use when talking about Prince), buttons and the T-shirt. I actually wore the T-shirt and the buttons when I went to see it for the first time. Now I wish I had a picture of that.- Downtown library (that's what Carter calls the public library). They were having their summer reading festival and Carter made a crown and got his face painted. Plus he just got to play at the library always a treat. The library was always a treat for us over the summer. Books for a week. See my mom was raising a librarian from the beginning. She just forgot to tell me so I could spend thousands of dollars on other degrees.

It was the first day of classes (no need talking about the actual classes the people), and after class I was going to go rollerblading. I got rollerblades from my high school girl friend and spent the summer practicing (on flat ground). So it was a wonderful afternoon in Sept (not too often in Duluth) and I went out for exercise. No sooner was I out the door than I realized how unskilled I was. Not only were the hills a challenge, but I looked like a kid compared to everyone else. All this talk about living your own life and being yourself in college... still has to deal with self image and peer groups.

No freshman wants to look like a punk in front of someone they might want to hang out with or date.

So I went all of 30 yards on my rollerblades. Walked back to my dorm and then went for a run. I ended up running miles and past where I would eventually live during one summer. A good run all in all. Except right after running I went with some friends to get our ID pictures taken. Red faced, sweaty, ragged hair and all, I took my ID picture. A picture that would stick with me all 4 years...

So much for trying to keep a good self image. Everyone has moments when they think too hard about how they look to others. I've had plenty in my life... I'm sure there are more to come.

Ah, Griggs Q315. That is where my college years started. I remember moving in - but really who doesn't. Although, I do remember seeing this cute girl out on the softball field during the crazy Bulldog bash. That girl turned out to be someone named Amy Deloach. That first weekend there are many stories, many stories... but that's another post. Here is the place where it all started (thanks Lucien for the pic)

It's been almost 10 years since Kyle and I drove up to Duluth to check out the college. We were visiting a friend/ex-girlfriend in the Cities and decided to drive up and check out the city on our way home. Who knew that would be the first trip down a strip of road I would know like the back of my hand.

As soon as we drove over the crest of the hill on I35, I knew that place was special. What a view. Most of you know what I'm talking about. Water, hills, and great atmosphere, much of which I was looking for in a college. I visited LaCrosse and loved the hills but it didn't seem like anything special. That's probably because I knew too many people going there. I visited Grove City, PA and loved the hills. It was a beautiful private college with great connections in D.C. (although the whole private college no girls in your room with the door closed or after 8:00 really sucked).But Duluth was beautiful. And that doesn't even begin to touch on the emotions and memories triggered by the city.

10 years the city still evokes those strong first impressions. Sometimes things just come together. Kyle and I never even got out of the car. We drove around the block of campus and under the Kirby walkway and then drove downtown. Without, UMD I would not be who I am (on so many fronts) and most of you would not be here reading my ramblings. That first drive with the emotions of running away and finding someplace new for college changed the course of my life. Duluth has done that many times to me through the years.

Amy I love you and am so thankful for our friendship and love that continues to grow after these 7.5 years (at least by my count). Thank you and I love you.Just a quick note to say thank you to all of you (well most of you after yesterday's post) for the help, support and friendship that we shared 4 years ago at the wedding.

So, we made it back to DBQ without any real problems. No slashed tires or anything. The time up at my folks was a lot of fun. Carter loved playing with Sarah and even once we were home, he still raised his juice cup and said "cheers." He does this at every meal. Between shaking hands and making toasts he's being groomed well. My folks' new house was really nice. I wondered what it would be like to stay there and not at "my house." But really "my house" is in DBQ. I haven't lived at my folks since my freshmen year of college. So while I love the memories of that house, that's all they were - memories. And they'll still be there. The weekend was fun. I patched a few holes in the drywall of the bathroom. Stupid design and former owners. They put in a shower/tub and did their own backsplash for it. Except it doesn't cover the whole tub. So we've got water, and then some molding drywall issues. So many fun issues with the crap former owners do. I'm playing catch up at work right now. I just started an online 3 week course for work, and damn it's going to be a lot of work. We are heading up to Amy's family the next two weekends, it will be busy but fun. My days consist of playing with Carter, catching up at work, classwork at work and home, getting ready for the baby (doing some more reading with Amy), reading some mindless Star Wars books for relaxation, and some sleep and caffeine somewhere in there. Reading the birthing books is really interesting, but there are so many conflicting ideas. One says, fight the pain, the other says work with it, still others say to tell your body that there is no pain. I guess it is good to have a variety of ideas to try if one doesn't work. But it feels like you are going in circles sometimes.By the way, I did see SW:III again and I still loved it and was just as wrapped up in the story the second time around.

Congrats Sarah! Thanks for all the great memories over the years. From playing duck-duck-goose (no grey duck you crazy MN's), to singing to Starship as kids, to driving to high school parties, to sharing a beer and good conversation as adults. We've been through a lot. Congrats friend.

Some people like there weed, others prefer Sudafed based drugs, still others take to the bottle. Sure I enjoy a “good” beer. I prefer mine the watered down red-necked American way. For me a beer is not supposed to fill you up, it is supposed to quench your thirst. If alcohol didn’t dehydrate you, I’d say it’s a damn good substitute for water. But here my economics comes into play. There is a huge diminishing returns on beer. Those first few swigs are so refreshing, but then by the end of the can (see I told you I prefer it like a hick – just no Busch for me – I’m living the High Life) it’s just a beer.

But my drug of choice is caffeine. How can it not be for any semi-dysfunctional member of society? Caffeine gets you up earlier, puts a smile on a bad day, keeps your body shaking when it gets tired around 3:00, keeps you moving at night, and allows you to stay up later. Who doesn’t want a simple non regulated drug that does that? Sure I can go without it. I did for the last two days, since I wanted to make sure that it would have it’s full effect on me when I hit the road at 5:30 am. Didn’t end up going to the conference, but I can tell you my day is better with that pot of coffee. More alert, less crabby (just ask Amy), still awake at 10:00 pm or 11:30 and that’s a good thing with a child on the way. Caffeine is the narcotic for me. It’s cheaper than alcohol, better on most major organs (expect maybe the heart), and its’ side effects are much more desirable.

Here is my challenge: I just opened a new tin of coffee and I will not buy another beer until that tin is emptied. I’ll let you know if the temptation that is the few remaining cans of High Life make it through the weekend.

And speaking of temptations, I think I may finally cave in after all of 42 hours and go see Star Wars tonight. I almost went last night, but I wavered and fought the temptation. Any else out there seen it yet? I’ll start a review post soon and I’m interested in your thoughts.

Back to that 5:30 roadtrip, I was supposed to go to a librarian conference today but I didn’t want to be 3.5 hours away from Amy and Carter and leave them without a car. Amy’s still having contractions, a couple every hour. They do seem to be getting stronger, she has to stop what she’s doing every so often. The midwife isn’t too concerned. Which I guess is good, but damn if these contractions are going to stick around for another 6 weeks… it’s going to get hard on everyone involved.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll write more later, maybe even a movie review. I still having issues with posting pics, but I haven’t spent too much time trying to figure it out. So sorry for the boring page.

Wow, contractions, contractions, contractions. Amy spent most of the entire day dealing with contractions. They kept getting stronger and closer together. But 6:00 last night they were 4-5 minutes apart. After talking with our midwife a couple times during this, she kept suggesting that we could come if we wanted to have someone look at us. Well, we figured that it was best to get it figured out.

Of course, they had to actually admit us and Amy had to get all hooked up to the monitors. It was strange (since it reminded me of everything with Carter's birth), but also exciting. Once all this happens, the contractions start to slow down and get weaker. So that was it. We were there for about 2 hours, watched a little cable, got fimilar with the rooms (very nice by the way), and they said we were okay to go. Well, at least they stopped for a while so Amy could sleep.

I just hope this doesn't keep up for the next 8 weeks, so that Amy can keep moving in relative comfort.

Well, I've been trying to upload some images to the blog for the past day. But no luck so far. Not much going on with me, but Amy's been having contractions since last night around 6. They stopped over night, but started back up this morning. It's too early, only 33-34 , but who knows. If they are not real, they're strong enough to been physically draining. I guess we'll see... so stay tuned.

I graduate officially today. My name's probably being called around this time. Oh well, I haven't been to a graduation since high school. My next one I'll go to will probably be Carter's. I just hope I get the piece of paper.

And finally - Congrats to my sister!!! She did it. She finished law school. We've been through a lot as brother and sister, and like all of these pairs there is plenty of ups and downs. But throughout it all she's my sister and I love her. Whether we were playing duck-duck goose (not "grey duck" you crazy MNs) in our grandparents front lawn or dropping her off at a high school party or sharing a good beer and conversation we've been together. So today I tip my hat to my sis. Congrats sis. I'm so damn proud of you yghutes vxd hj rgvbfhbbnnbhn nbnbv b kjfvnxbfvhvffdtfdgv (and so is Carter).

I just realized that I can change the settings so that you do not need to create username to post. Sorry it's taken a while. But if that was holding you back from postings, you've got no excuses now... well other than you just don't give a shit.

I just finished up my last final for this semester. I still have to revise it, but I'll be done well before it is due Thursday night at 11:00. Been busy that last few days trying to finish up with my coursework. And now like every good college student, I'm ready to crack open a six or 12 pack and relax for a while. I have a few workshops that I'm taking for work this summer, but no classes. Now I'm looking forward to catching up on a few things around the house and getting some reading done before I see SW: RotS.

I've read the lead in novel to the movie back during my spring break in April. Yeah, I know it's sad that I spent my spring back reading SW, but it sure beat reading about how to catalog and organize information for library catalogs. Although if any of you out there have trouble sleeping, I've got some great reading material that I'll promise will knock you out in under 2 pages. Just as Amy how many ties she's looked over at me and I'm sitting up asleep. I did a lot of the famous head-bobbing-falling-asleep-in-class-college-style this semester.

Well, it's 12:30 and I'm starting to ramble. I'll look to see if anyone else can create main posts here and not just messages, but in the meantime, I'd be happy to repost it on the main page if someone had something they wanted to share.

By the way, if anyone has some time to kill - click on the "Next Blog" link at the top of the right hand side. It takes you to a random blog. I've seen some pretty interesting ones (movie reviews, favorite book quotes, cooking ideas, personal dating issues). If you're bored by my thoughts (hell even I am sometimes) check out some of the crap other people post. And while you are at add a random comment of their blog too.

After playing around with the code to try to get the table and links to work again, I decided to change templates to get it working. Hope you like it.

I'm adding a picture here of Carter and I from earlier this spring. He's the best little guy. Today he got a Dora pillow case, he ran into his room and came out with his Winnie the Pooh blanket, dropped it in the living room and headed back to his room. He climbed into bed, laid on his pillow and covered up with his Dora pillow case.

Oh, if you are curious, the "Rocky" spoof I talked about earlier was actually very entertaining. Training montage, Mr.T. spoof, steps, not actually beating the champ and all.

We had Carter's birthday party this weekend. It was such a fun time. I'll write more later, but he had such a good time. All his little daycare friends were there and he just played like crazy. I'm going to try to post some pictures this evening (well try is the keyword). No presents got further than the door. Carter wanted to open them as soon as he saw them. Which was great because then everyone got to see him open and be excited about their gift. On Sunday, Carter asked for "more presents." So we'll see how he is today when we are out of presents to open.

He got a lot of fun stuff, even a Veggie Tale spoof of Rocky so I'm looking forward to that. That's really what my movie viewing has been reduced to... Veggie Tales movies. I just watched one that spoofed Blazing Saddles, right down to the Madline Kahn song & dance and Brooks' aloof governor. I'm not complaining although I'm looking forward to their Lord of the Rings a little too much.

Since the last FF ranking generated a little debate, here are the newest rankings from ESPN's Scott Engel, with my comments attached:

QUARTERBACKS1. Peyton Manning - of course2. Donovan McNabb - back for another strong season3. Daunte Culpepper - question marks at WR, look at what happened w/o Moss(I think this is the top tier, after this I'd throw dice for the others, and wait a few rounds)4. Trent Green - who knew? They should have a solid O this year5. Kerry Collins - Lots of weapons, but come on it's Kerry Collins, #5?6. Marc Bulger - Martz will always pass alot7. Brett Favre - I agree with G from the last post, their D will suck and Farve will have to pass alot, just hope your league doesn't take too much off for INTs8. Jake Delhomme - good WRs as long as they stay healthy, ground game could be interesting9. Tom Brady - solid as always, I'd put him higher just because he's consistent10. Michael Vick - my how the over marketed have fallen11. Drew Brees - I love Brees, he's taken his Flutie Flakes and now has the weapons12. Jake Plummer - was pretty up and down last season, but has a good cast and OL13. Matt Hasselbeck - "remember me, I used to be a top 5 QB"14. Aaron Brooks - good skill, just too inconsistent, would be nice to see WR step up15. Carson Palmer - glad I picked him last year, and wish I held onto him, will continue to rise16. Brian Griese - who knows, maybe Saban will make a difference... maybe17. Byron Leftwich - good raw talent and speed, question marks around him18. Chad Pennington - used to be a top 10, used to be is the keyword19. David Carr - put up numbers last year, a solid backup20. Steve McNair - how much can he play, how soon will Volek start?21. Eli Manning - give him another year22. Ben Roethlisberger - lots of hype, but not the fantasy numbers23. Kyle Boller - is he even a bye week play?24. Joey Harrington - with Gracia breathing down his neck, it'll be a matter of time25. Drew Bledsoe - good guy, but below Boller? really?

Okay, after falling off of my pledge about having new content everyday - I'm back. "Falling off" that's an interesting way to put it. Hmm, it's been a few days since I've had a beer, it's been a few days since I've posted... I see a conection. It all revolves around a nice friendly golden can of Miller High Life.

Anyhow here's my bitch of the day... no one talks to me. I haven't posted in a few days cause no one else is posting. Okay... today jeffy gave a message. Thanks. But I started to think that no one cared or was interested. Then today, when I realized no one cared - I realized niether did I.

Read it, post to it or not - I'm still here ranting. I care about my thoughts. Okay that's not really all that true either. You all know me. I'm not the most reflection person in the world. I perfer to keep moving too much, rather than stop and think. Well, this blog is my stopping area. I'll share my thoughts if for no other reason than to keep me out of thearpy. Okay, not really thearpy, but hell maybe it will work to reduce the stress rash on my arm (more than you wanted to know, but hell if you are still reading this just be glad it's not contaigious).

Well, this weekend was fun. We got Carter a big boy bed to sleep in. He only fell out once on Saturday. But for someone who is pretty young to get scared, he is pretty worried about being in the room all alone. He's doing well with it though. Other than my back hurting from sleeping on the floor next to him, everything is fine. No fainting, nothing exciting - although the nurse did call last week to see if I was doing okay.

Okay it wasn't just giving blood, they hooked me up to this machine that drew my blood, spun out the plasma and red blood cells and stuck the plasma back in. 2 pints worth. I had no idea about this thing.

I signed up to give blood a couple of weeks ago at a service fair here on campus. You know, do the nice thing, get involved with the students outside of the library. All that stuff. Anyhow, Tuesday was my day. I had breakfast, but didn't eat lunch. I forgot all about giving blood and eating before hand (last time I gave blood was 2 years ago). Anyhow, the nurse person comes up to me and asks if I'd be willing to donate the red blood cells, rather than just blood, since they are low on that. I had to be a male, over 150 lbs, and over 5'1" (for those of you wanting to make a joke, save it till the end).

So why not, I'm game. But as soon as I said it, my stomach started to turn. I haven't eaten, so I grabbed two cookies and started to eat. After all the questions and stuff. I love the one about if I've every had a blood transfusion in the presense of someone who lived in the UK and sold their monkey for sex. Who answers yes to these questions?

They hook me up, and all is going fine. I'm drinking some juice because they've told me it'll take 35-40 minutes, so I'm thinking about not eating. I've got a high iron count so the machine is already grabbing plasma (which looks pretty werid). I'm doing fine until one nurse walks by and says that I look a little pale. "I don't feel pale," I said. Then I proceeded to look down at the needle and back up. "Okay, I'm a feeling pale."

Next thing I know I'm riding on a flying shopping cart through the city at night.

Then my eyes open and I'm staring up at strange, blurry (they took my classes off) faces and bright lights. I've got no idea where the hell I am, but damn I'm feeling pretty rested. I'm not at home... where was I... crap! I passed out.

There are students on both sides of me, who I know. I turned to one and said, "hey you always look good when your next to the guy that passes out." The Red Cross ladies said I was out for about a minute. They had taken the needle out, undone my tie, and cold rags all over my face. Later that night I saw another student who was next to me. He said "Man you were out. They kept trying to wake you up, but nothing."

Oh well, it gave everyone something to talk about. But hey, they did get a pint at least.

Okay, so I created my blog for the research class at school and sent an email out to everyone in the class. As of now, there's only one person. We'll see how it works, or if it does over the next few days.

Thanks to everyone who posted today. I plan on staying active with this blog. So I hope that most of you will stop by every now and then. One thing I will make sure of is that I'm adding new content each day. Maybe a full rant, maybe a Carter story, or maybe just a cool link I found.

But I promise there will continue to be new stuff. Whether or not any of it is interesting, well that's for you to decide. I have a timeline on Darth Sidious coming up, some NFL draft discussion, some side stories and probably a lot of other odds and ends. I hope you're add some topics for discussion too.

I decided that I wanted to set up a blog for feedback at the library, but I wanted to test it out first. So this is that experiment.

Feel free to reply to any post and add your own thoughts and comments. I'll be adding my rants on a probably a daily basis. You all know that I suck at email, so maybe this might help me stay in touch with you guys. So here we go...

First up, any thoughts on MNF moving to ESPN? Or NBC being back in the mix with the NFL? I'm glad that they are moving to the flexible scheduling. That should make this interesting - although most every game is interesting from a fantasy football standpoint.

I've been putting together an email about Star Wars and Sidious/Palpatine. So I'll look to post that in a day or two. I want to put up a brief essay on SW each week as we build up to EpIII. It is not the completion of the saga, just the complete the movies. To me there is still a lot of story to be told. With my posts I want to try to tie together some of the stuff that's been leading up to EPIII. I've recently finished watching TPM and AOTC again, and I really enjoyed TPM. Please feel free to rip it, but I'll post why I think it makes sense (now that we know what we know). It is not a great movie, but it's a fun opening chapter to a much larger story. There is a prologue to that saga and I'll talk about. A lot of good stuff lead up to TPM and by knowing it by TPM and ATOC make more sense.